Introducing November's Bean of the Month, Costa Rica Volcancito. This exceptional coffee brings together rich dark chocolate notes, delicate hints of manuka honey, and a subtle touch of peanuts.
It’s wonderfully creamy with milk and sweetly crisp when enjoyed black. Grown by Volcan Azul, the aptly named "Volcancito" (meaning little volcano) delivers a true eruption of flavour.
Volcan Azul has produced an explosion of flavour with this Volcancito which translates to “little volcano”. Flavours of dark chocolate, manuka honey and peanuts create a warm, rich and smooth coffee which is gorgeously creamy when served with milk, and sweet and crisp as a black coffee.
Coffee producer Alejo Khale Castro is the fifth generation of his family to produce coffee from this location since the first trees were planted in 1840. For this lot he has harvested the cherries from the youngest coffee trees, creating a unique flavour profile quite different from his usual fruit forward naturals.
COFFEE ORIGIN PROFILE
Producer: Alejo Khale Castro
Farm: Volcan Azul
Country: Costa Rica
Region: West Valley
Varietals: Caturra
Process: Washed
Altitude: 1400 -1700m above sea level.
Volcan Azul is a fifth-generation coffee producing business which has grown to encompass a group of fincas (farms) in the West and Central Valleys of Costa Rica. Founded in 1840 by Alejo C. Jiminez and Willhelm Kahle, Volcan Azul is now in the extremely capable hands of Alejo Khale Castro.
We were lucky enough to meet Alejo when he visited Brisbane in 2017, and we’ve been fans of his coffee ever since, featuring a few of his different special lots over the years.
TASTING NOTES & CUPPING PROFILE
Aromas: cocoa, cedar, anise
Flavours: manuka honey, dark chocolate, peanuts
Acidity: crisp
Body: creamy
Aftertaste: milk chocolate
Cupping Score: 83/100.
Manuka honey and chocolate is a flavour match made in heaven, as anyone from Aotearoa New Zealand will tell you given half a chance. Costa Rica Volcancito goes a step beyond, giving us a cup of coffee where the dark chocolate flavour combines with the taste of manuka honey and peanuts, in a creamy body with a milk chocolate finish.
There’s a hint of spice in the aromatics, with cocoa, cedar and anise coming through in the grounds. All together it’s a warming, rich and smooth cup which is gorgeously creamy as a white coffee and crisp when served black.
BREW GUIDE
Chocolate flavours in coffee always send us running to the espresso machine to draw out the full richness of the cup. Volcancito is a bold, big flavoured coffee and delivers quite the punch as an expresso, with the manuka honey sweetness tempering the dark chocolate and the creamy flavour becoming almost buttery.
Served as a latte or flat white the milk creates a little bit of space in the flavour profile and the roasted peanut comes through with milk chocolate and manuka honey to mimic the effect of Whittaker’s chocolate bar from across the ditch: all you need is a little pear danish on the side.